it  »  -■  »  *,«,«  M    I  rt  *rt  Mi*«^  «  «  t   t   •■■  *  Iti*  *  Ai 


-^ 


ltti<t*^*<HHKItlrtttUt>| 


VAIN     1  K     HkllJ1     OF  MAN".' 


A.    SERMON 


# 


REACHED  IS 


iftrot  f  liiwi,  JmiiimI, 


5N  THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  16,  1864, 

FASTING, 'HUMILIATION.  AND   PBAYER,| 


AfPOr>-TKI>    m 


THE  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  STATE  Oi'  GEORGIA. 


TOE  RT.  REV.  STEPHEN  ELLIOTT,  D.  D. 


HEOTOR    OP    CHTUfcT    CHURCH. 


"God  it  ouv  lifiig*  ral  etr<mgtb,  a  Tory  prr?  ut  help  ia  trouble.1' 

—Psalm  XL  VI:   1. 


MACON,   GA.: 

BURKE,  BOYKIN  &    COMPANY 

1861. 


»»  t  ii  n  'm  t  g  >  limn  n  m  f  i  ,  »  »  m 


>MMM»MM"MMMMMM  I  >  Ml 


•        "VAIN    IS    THE    HELP     OF    M^N." 

A    SERMON 

PREACHED  IN 

CHRIST  CHURCH,  SAVANNAH, 

ON  THURSDAY,  SEPTEMBER  15,  1864, 


BEISO  THE   DAY  OF 


FASTING,   HUMILIATION,  AND   PKAYER, 


APPOINTED    BY 


THE  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  STATE  OF  GEORGIA. 


THE  RT.  REV.  STEPHEN  ELLIOTT,  D.  D, 

RECTOR    OF    CHRIST    CHURCH. 


"  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble." 

—Psalm  XL VI:  1. 


MLAXJOIST,  GA.: 

BURKE,    BOYKIN    &    COMPANY. 
1864. 


T; 


J^fm0tt. 


Psalm  lx.     vv.  11,  12. 

Give  us  help  from  trouble;  for  vain  is  the  help  of  man. 
Through   God  we  shall  do  valiantly;  for  He  it  is  that  shall   tread  down 
our  enemies. 

Once  again  have  we  been  summoned,  my  beloved  people, 
to  bow  ourselves  in  humiliation  before  God,  and  with  fasting 
and  prayer  to  invoke  his  intervention  in  our  behalf.  War 
and  its  attendant  horrors  have  come  very  near  our  own  homes, 
and  we  meet  to-day  to  beseech  our  Heavenly  Father  that  its 
bloody  tide  may  be  stayed,  and  its  proud  waters  may  not  be 
permitted  to  roll  over  us.  For  months  past  has  it  been 
Steadily  advancing  toward  us ;  we  have  heard  its  hoarse  and 
cruel  murmuring  as  it  came  nearer  and  nearer ;  the  spoils  of 
its  destructive  progress  have  been  brought  to  our  feet  in  the 
exiled  women  and  children  who  have  fled  to  us  for  refuge, 
and  in  the  dead  bodies  of  our  noble  young  men  which  have 
come  back  to  us  for  Christian  burial.  But  it  has  not  yet 
reached  us,  and  we  unite  to-day,  with  the  citizens  of  our 
sovereign  State,  to  pray  that  God  would  utter  his  decree, 
11  Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  further."  Trouble  is  near 
enough  to  us  to  make  us  earnest;  already  have  the  flut- 
terings  of  distress  disturbed  many  hearts;  already  is  the 
enquiry  frequent  and  anxious,  "  What  shall  be  the  end  of 
these  things  ?"  Man  is  looking  to  his  fellow-man  with  gloomy 
face  and  troubled  spirit.  Woman  is  summoning  up  her  for- 
titude to  give  her  strength  in  the  day  of  adversity.  Our 
counsellors  are  at  fault,  and  our  armies  have  been  steadily 
driven  back.  We  cry  unto  man  and  no  help  comes ;  we  labor 
and  fight  and  there  is  no  fruit  of  our  labor,  and  no  perma- 
nent success  to  our  arms.     We  have  nothing  left  but  to  follow 


4  A  SERMON. 

the  example  of  the  Psalmist  and  crying  unto  God  to  "give 
us  help  from  trouble,"  to  acknowledge  that  "  vain  is  the  help 
of  man." 

But  this  is  to  us  no  new  phase  in  our  affairs.  What  have 
we  been  engaged  in  from  the  beginning  but  just  this  very 
confession  that  "our  help  must  come  from  God,"  and  that  "it 
is  He  that  shall  tread  down  our  enemies."  Had  I  ever  looked 
to  the  arm  of  flesh,  I  should  never  have  hoped  for  any  termi- 
nation of  this  conflict  but  a  fatal  one.  The  odds  against  us 
were  too  great,  unless  we  believed  that  God  was  on  our  side, 
and  that  his  influences  would  equalize  the  conflict.  Almost 
every  six  months  since  this  struggle  commenced,  have  we 
bowed  ourselves,  as  a  people,  before  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and 
prayed,  for  his  mercy  and  protection  from  the  fury  of  our 
mighty  foes.  And  never  have  we  cried  in  vain !  He  has 
always  answered  our  supplications,  and  has  thus  far  supported 
us  under  all  our  trials,  and  sustained  our  cause  against  the 
overwhelming  masses  of  our  enemy.  Our  case  is  no  different 
now,  save  that  the  peril  and  the  desolation  have  become  more 
personal  to  ourselves,  and  that  we  feel  its  presence  more 
sensibly.  We  clothed  ourselves  in  mourning  then  for  the 
Confederacy;  we  now  keep  our  day  of  humiliation  for  the 
State.  We  fasted  arid  prayed  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts  upon 
those  occasions  for  the  general  cause.  We  now  are  in  bitter- 
ness for  our  own  fair  heritage,  and  for  the  sufferings  of  our 
personal  friends,  and  for  the  slaughter  of  those  who  are  near 
and  dear  to  us.  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas  and 
Tennessee,  and  above  all,  high  souled  Virginia,  have  all 
passed  through  the  desolation  which  seems  approaching  us ; 
have  all  wept  over  their  ruined  homes  and  their  despoiled 
estates ;  have  carried  their  loved  ones  to  the  grave  with  firm 
hearts  and  unshaken  spirits,  sustained  by  the  assurance  that 
they  have  died  in  the  noblest  cause  in  which  blood  can  be 
shed,  or  life  poured  out.  They  are  still  unconquered  ;  the  wave 
has  passed  over  them,  but  has  not  overwhelmed  them ;  they 
have  shaken  its  waters  from  them,  as  the  Lion  shakes  the  rain 
drops  from  its  mane,  and  yet  breathe  defiance  and  maintain 
hope.  No  new  thing  has  happened  unto  us.  We  are  only 
passing  through  the  fiery  trial  which  has  tried  most  of  our 


A  SERMON.  5 

sister  States,  and  while  it  is  right  that  we  should  humble  our- 
selves before  God,  and  implore  his  help  in  our  day  of  necessity, 
it  is  also  right  that  we  should  imitate  the  proud  example  of 
those  desolated  States,  and  prove  that  we  are  worthy  to  be 
classed  among  the  sovereignties  which  can  suffer  and  die,  but 
cannot  pass  under  the  yoke  of  servitude. 

Why  should  we,  of  all  the  States  of  the  Confederacy  have 
hoped  to  be  exempt  from  suffering?  Are  we  better  than 
they?  Have  we  a  higher  tone  of  morality  and  religion  than 
that  proud  mother  of  States  for  example,  who  has  for  three 
years  been  the  battle  ground  of  the  revolution?  Her  cities 
have  been  captured,  and  placed  under  the  iron  heel  of  the 
vilest  fanatics  of  the  age ;  her  rural  population  has  been  driven 
from  their  beautiful  homes,  and  are  now  wanderers  over  the 
Confederacy  ;  her  Churches,  sacred  relics  of  the  past,  around 
which  are  clustered  the  graves  of  generations,  have  been 
burned  with  fire ;  her  archives,  memorials  of  the  long  line 
of  her  heroes  and  statesmen,  a  loss  irreparable,  have  been 
rifled  and  destroyed.  Has  she  quailed  before  these  things? 
Have  her  hands  been  made  to  hang  down  and  her  knees  to 
become  feeble?  Has  she  even  complained?  Why  should 
we  expect  to  escape  our  share  of  the  punishment  which  comes 
from  God,  especially  when  that  punishment  seems  to  be  the 
chastening  of  a  Father,  and  not  the  judgment  of  a  consuming 
fire?  Nay  more,  should  we  desire  it?  Are  we  self-righteous 
enough  to  imagine  that  we  do  not  deserve  our  share  of  the 
chastisement  which  is  abroad?  God  forbid!  for  it  would 
prove  that  we  were  in  a  condition  which  might  demand  a 
fiercer  cautery.  Better  for  us  to  share  our  portion  of  the 
pcissing  evil,  than  to  be  spared,  in  the  future,  for  some  sorer 
punishment.  Were  we  to  come  out  of  this  conflict,  alone  of 
all  the  States,  rich,  unharmed,  undevastattd,  we  should  come 
out  without  a  local  history,  without  any  thing  for  tradition  to 
hang  glory  upon,  without  those  scars  of  honor  which  desig- 
nate the  veteran  hero.  We  might  be  pointed  at  as  a  State 
which  had  reaped  nothing  but  gain  from  the  conflict,  and  had 
accumulated  wealth  at  the  expense  of  the  sufferings  of  others. 
We  might  be  left  with  a  sordid  spirit,  caring  more  for  money 
than  for  honor,  more  for  gain  than  for  reputation.    Better,  far 


6  A  SERMON. 

better  for  us,  as  a  State,  that  we  should  bear  our  portion  of 
the  general  suffering,  should  be  able  to  point  to  battle  fields 
hotly  contested  upon  our  own  soil,  should  have  tales  to  tell 
in  the  future  which  would  prove  us  to  have  been  an  heroic 
race,  and  not  distinguished  alone  for  our  powers  of  acquisition, 
and  our  habits  of  trade.     A  national   character  is  a  most 
important  element  in  the  future  of  a  State,  and  in  no  way  is 
it  so  certainly  gained  as  by  passing  a  people  through  a  fierce 
struggle,  in  which  they  have  been  brought  face  to  face  with 
suffering  and  peril.     All  those  States  which  in  the  old  revo- 
lution bore  the  brunt  of  the  British  fury,  have  to  this  day 
maintained  their  reputation,  and  have  stood  conspicuous  upon 
the  pages  of  our  public  history,  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
Virginia,   South   Carolina!     Their   battle  fields  have  made 
them  historical,    and  they  have  kindled  within  them,  ever 
since,  a  national  feeling  which  has  helped  to  make  them  con- 
spicuous.    It  operates  upon  States,  as  a  line  of  heroic  and 
renowned  ancestry  operates  upon  individuals.     Just  as  the 
French  proverb,  "Noblesse  oblige,"  marks  the  effect  upon  the 
individual  whom  nobility  distinguishes,  so  does  the  history  of 
a  State  operate  upon  its  people.     Their  past  requires  a  present 
which  shall  be  correspondent  with  its  fame,  and  harmonious 
with  its  character.     The  eye  of  the  world  is  upon  them  ;  they 
know  it  and  feel  it,  and  they  rise  up,  under  the  consciousness, 
to  a  level  very  much   above   that  which,  under   ordinary 
circumstances,  they  should  have  attained.     Even  under  this 
point  of  view,  the  invasion  of  our  State  is  not  so  great  a 
calamity  as  many  feel  it  to  be ;  individuals  may  suffer  deeply, 
but  the  State  may  be  elevated  immeasurably;  our  fields  may 
be  sown  with  blood  and  desolation,  but  the  harvest  may  be  one 
of  national  character  which  shall  bless  us  for  long  generations. 
But  putting  aside  this  view  of  the  subject,  may  we  not  have 
expected  just  such  a  visitation?     Have  not  our  own  states- 
men and  orators  been  predicting,  for  the  last  eighteen  months, 
just  such  results  as  the  consequences  of  the  iron  grasp  with 
which  many  of  our  citizens  have  clung  to  their  property  and 
their  ease  ?     Has  not  the  voice  of  the  truest  of  our  patriots,* 

*Howell  Cobb. 


A   SERMON.  7 

be*i  ringing  through  the  State  exhorting  our  people  to  feed 
our  armies,  to  clothe  our  soldiers,  to  furnish  to  the  Govern- 
ment the  necessary  material  of  war  ?     Have  not  hfs  words  of 
power  and  of  sarcasm  been  hurled  in  vain  against  these  very- 
men  who  are  now  likely  to  lose  the  whole  because  they  would 
not  yield  a  part  to  the  just  demands  of  their  country?     Have 
not  our  Generals  in  command  cried  for  men  and  cried  without 
any  answer,  until  the  strong  arm  of  power  has  been  obliged 
to  drag  them  from  their  skulking  places  and  force  them  to 
their  duty?     "What  can  our  State  expect  but  subjugation,  if 
her  citizens  will  not  consent  to  supply  our  armies  with  food 
and  with  men  ?     We  think  upon  an  occasion  like  this,  when 
a  foe  is  upon  us,  whom  we  now  clearly  understand  to  have 
determined  to  extirpate  our  race  as  a  pestilent  one,  and  to  fill 
up  the  seats  of  our  ancestors  with  hirelings  from  every  land 
under  the  sun,  that  every  sword  would  leap  from  its  scab- 
bard, every  arm  would  acquire  fresh  power,  and  in  one  solid 
phalanx  we  would  arise  and  annihilate  the  invader.     If  we 
do  not  we  deserve  our  fate  and  it  will  come  upon  us  justly.' 
We  should  fast  and  pray,  but  not  for  our  danger ;  our  hu- 
miliation should  be  for  our  covetousness,  for  our  low-minded- 
hess,  for  our  indifference,  for  our  apathy.     If  the  Lord  an- 
swers us  aright,  his  answer  would  be  that  which  he  made  to 
Moses,  when  the  people  of  Israel  were  crying  unto  him  from 
among  the  mountains  of  the  Eed  Sea,  and  were  saying,  "Is 
not  this  the  word  that  we  did  tell  thee  in  Egypt,  saying,  let  ua 
alone,  that  we  may  serve  the  Egyptians  ?     For  it  had  been 
better  for  us  to  serve  the  Egyptians,  than  that  we  should  die  in 
the  wilderness?"    "  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto  me?     Speak 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,   that  they  go  forward !"     Yes, 
this  is  what  we  are  called  to  fast  and  pray  for,  that  we  have 
not  the  liberality  to  pour  out  food  for  the  necessities  of  our 
Government,  nor  the  manliness  to  unite  as  one  man  and  hurl 
our  foe  across  the  borders.     It  requires  nothing  but  the  reso- 
lution ;  the  act  would  follow  it  as  certainly  as  united  Greece 
rolled  back  the  myriads  of  the  Persians.     No  army  has  ever 
yet  been  able  to  withstand  a  people  rising  in  its  power.     Even 
Napoleon,  in  the  heigth  of  his  dominion,  quailed  before  regen- 


\  \ 


8  A  SERMON, 

erate  Germany,  when  Korner  awoke  his  people  to  resistance 
by  the  magic  of  his  song,  and  the  Father-land  was  free ! 

There  i»no  inconsistency,  my  hearers,  between  saying  that 
"  the  help  of  man  is  vain,"  and  "  that  it  is  God  who  is  to 
tread  our  enemies  under  foot,"  and  yet  calling  upon  our 
people  to  awake  and  buckle  on  the  armor  of  heroic  citizen- 

,  ship !  God  works  by  means ;  we  must  not  expect  in  these 
days,  to  receive  help  from  Him  through  miracle.  He  will 
help  us  in  time  of  trouble,  but  through  ordinary  means.  He 
will  help  us  by  giving  us  strength  in  the  day  of  adversity ; 
by  opening  our  hearts  to  sustain  our  Government ;  by  quell- 
ing dissensions  among  ourselves;  by  infusing  courage  into 
all  those  who  are  weak-minded  and  timid ;  by  confounding  the 
devices  of  our  enemies.  These  are  the  ways  in  which  he  now 
manifests  himself,  and  it  is  for  these  ends  that  we  are  called  to 
fast  and  to  pray  this  day.  If  any  one  expects  that  the  results 
of  this  humiliation  will  exibit  themselves  in  some  extraordi- 
nary shape,  he  will  be  sorely  disappointed.  If  any  results  flow 
from  it,  and  they  will  be  dependent  upon  the  sincerity  and 
faithfulness  with  which  it  is  observed,  they  will  come  in  the 
shape  of  renewed  faith,  of  enlarged  hope,  of  fresh  confi- 
dence, of  reviving  courage.  They  will  be  seen  in  the  readi- 
ness with  which  our  people  will  rally  around  the  Govern- 
ment— in  the  healing  of  dissensions  among  our  authorities — 
in  the  decrease  of  selfishness — in  the  determination  of  every 
one  to  do  his  part,  whatever  it  may  be,  in  flinging  back,  into 
the  face  of  our  enemies,  his  insults  and  his  cruelty.  These 
are  the  legitimate  consequences  of  humiliation  and  prayer, 
because  these  are  the  means  which  are  natural  and  which 
God  is  accustomed  to  use  in  these  days  when  miracles  are  no 
more  required.  Our  text  combines  the  two  very  beautifully. 
"  Through  God  we  shall  do  valiantly,"  is  its  expression.     It  is 

*  we  who  are  to  do  valiantly,  but  yet  it  is  through  God.  And 
so  shall  we  find  it.  He  means  us  to  work  out  our  own  deli- 
verance, but  to  work  it  out  in  subjection  to  his  will  and  in 
subservience  to  his  purposes.  He  will  be  the  sovereign  ruler 
of  his  people,  even  while  he  may  be  guiding  them  to  their 
heart's  desire. 

In  this  conflict,  more  perhaps  than  in  any  the  world  has 


A  SERMON.  9 

seen,  must  it  be  God  who  shall  tread  under  foot  our  enemies. 
It  is  a  conflict  involving  he  future  of  a  race,  whose  existence 
or  extinction  depends  upon  its  result.  The  white  race  of 
the  South,  even  though  subjugated,  might  continue  to  exist, 
to  live  on  for  a  time  in  shame  and  degradation,  and  at  last  to 
commingle,  as  the  Anglo-Saxons  did,  with  their  Norman  con- 
querors. '  But  the  black  race  perishes  with  its  freedom. 
Thej  will  die  out  before  the  encroaching  white  labor  of 
Europe,  which  will  be  poured  in  upon  them,  as  the  Indians 
have  died  out  before  the  progress  of  civilization,  or  they  will 
be  banished  to  other  lands  to  perish  there,  forgotten  and  un- 
lamented.  The  Puritan  code  of  mercy  has  always  been  the 
harsh  one,  "  If  you  cannot  do  for  yourself  you  must  die." 
If  God  therefore  has  any  meaning  in  his  past  dealings  with  this 
race,  in  permitting  it  to  be  brought  here,  to  be  preserved,  to 
increase,  to  be  civilized,  it  is  not  his  purpose  that  they  should 
be  given  the  liberty  which  their  pretended  friends  are  seeking 
for  them.  To  protect  them,  he  must  protect  us,  and  there- 
fore is  it,  as  I  have  said  again  and  again,  that  I  have  full  con- 
fidence in  the  successful  termination  of  this  conflict.  What 
we  may  suffer  in  the  struggle  is  one  thing ;  the  end  of  the 
struggle  is  quite  another  thing.  And  looking  at  it  in  this 
light  I  am  not  disturbed  by  temporary  successes  or  defeats 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other;  nor  am  I  elated  by  appearances 
which  seem  to  promise  us  any  help  from  man.  This  is  God's 
war;  he  has  conducted  it  upon  very  remarkable  principles  ■ 
and  he  will  terminate  it  in  his  own  way  and  just  when  he 
thinks  that  the  ends  have  been  worked  out  which  He  designs 
to  fulfil.     Let  us  consider  these  points  before  we  close. 

The  two  ends  which  he  seems  to  have  had  in  view  in  the 
permission  of  this  terrible  war  have  been  the  punishment,  in 
a  natural  way  of  an  arrogant  people,  who  were  ascribing  their 
prosperity  and  their  material  power,  not  to  his  loving  kind- 
ness and  divine  mercy,  but  to  their  institutions  and  the  lib- 
erty upon  which  they  were  founded,  and  then  the  discomfiture 
of  the  short-sighted  philanthropists  of  the  world,  who  con 
ceiving  themselves  to  be  wiser  and  more  merciful  than  God 
had  determined  to  blot  out  of  the  world  all  the  evils  which 
sin  and  the  curse  had  laid  upon  it,  and  especially  the  evil  of 
B 


10  A  SERMON. 

slavery.  Now  was  the  time  for  this  glorious  work !  The 
South  had  laid  itself  open  to  their  assaults  by  her  secession, 
and  the  axe  must  be  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree.  This  war, 
continued  now  for  more  than  three  years  with  unparalleled 
bloodshed,  is  the  mode  in  which  God  is  accomplishing  his 
purposes.  Our  punishment  is,  as  I  said  to  you  a  few  Sun- 
days since,  a  dispensation  of  death.  This  war  has  produced 
no  results  but  slaughter  and  bloodshed.  God  has  conducted 
it  upon  such  principles,  as  that  while  death  has  reigned 
triumphant,  no  permanent  success  has  crowned  either  side. 
All  its  great  battles  have  produced  no  results  looking  to  any 
settlement  of  this  dispute.  At  the  first  battle  of  Manassas  we 
gave  the  enemy  a  shameful  defeat ;  disgraced  and  panic  stricken 
he  fled  to  his  Capital ;  and  we  held  victory  in  our  grasp,  but  it 
was  fruitless  in  its  consequences.  Our  great  defeats  in  the 
West,  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  the  overrunning  of  Louisi- 
ana, Arkansas  and  Mississippi,  have  in  like  manner  been  fruit- 
less in  their  hands.  We  have  recovered  almost  every  thing 
which  we  lost,  and  all  that  remains  of  those  bloody  rights  are 
the  graves  which  furrow  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and  the 
bones  which  are  bleaching  upon  its  plains.  The  wheel  of 
fortune  again  turned  in  our  favor,  and  Lee's  great  victories  in 
Virginia,  in  1863,  were  rendered  without  permanent  benefit 
by  our  failures  on  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac.  We  reaped 
a  harvest  of  death  and  nothing  else.  And  so  -will  it  continue 
until  God's  wrath  is  satisfied,  and  therefore  have  I  not  been 
disturbed  by  our  recent  reverses.  They  mean  blood  and 
death  and  nothing  more.  Subjugation  is  as  far  off  as  it  ever 
was  and  never  can  take  place,  for  God's  other  purpose  inter- 
feres with  it,  and  his  purpose  must  rule. 

That  other  purpose,  as  I  said  before,  is  the  discomfiture 
of  the  so  called  philanthrophy  of  the  world — its  discom- 
fiture by  showing  it  practically  how  little  the  slaves  care  for 
such  freedom  as  they  can  offer,  and  that  the  tender  mercies  of 
such  friends  are  cruel.  The  bitterest  disappointment  of  this 
war  has  been  the  quiet  contentment  of  the  slaves.  They 
have  never  gone  to  our  enemies  in  any  numbers ;  deceit  and 
cajolement  have  been  used  in  vain ;  they  have  had  to  come  to 
the  slave.    He  has  continued  in  obedience  through  all  the 


A   SERMON.  11 

changes  of  the  struggle,  and  nevei  yet  has  offered  violence  to 
those  who  have  had  charge  of  him.  Their  quiet  has  been 
wonderful  even  to  ourselves,  and  has  caused  the  world  not 
only  to  wonder,  but  to  reverse  its  settled  judgment  about  their 
treatment  and  condition.  And  how  sad  has  been  their  fate 
since  they  have  been  beguiled  and  betrayed  into  the  hands 
of  their  so  called  liberators !  The  husbands  and  sons  per- 
ishing by  thousands  upon  the  battle  field,  and  the  wives  and 
mothers  and  little  children  sinking  into  inhospitable  graves 
with  none  to  care  for  them  or  watch  over  them.  I  will  ven- 
ture to  say  that  of  the  negroes  who  have  fallen  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Federal  armies,  more  than  one-half  of  those 
who  have  been  deprived  of  the  protection  of  their  masters 
have  already  perished.  ^The  world  even  now  sees  and  ac- 
knowledges that  the  slaves  have  gained  nothing  by  their 
emancipation,  and  are  beginning  to  be  satisfied  that  it  has 
made  a  grievous  mistake  in  attempting  to  remove  these  people 
from  their  normal  condition  of  servitude. 

When  these  two.  purposes  shall  have  been  effected,  our 
punishment  through  the  dispensation  of  death,  and  the  over- 
throw of  man's  folly  and  fanaticism,  then  may  we  look  for 
peace — and  not  until  then!  Therefore  is  it  that  I  repeat, 
"  Yain  is  the  help  of  man."  I  have  no  faith  in  national  plat- 
forms and  Presidential  elections;  no  expectations  from  Euro- 
pean recognition  or  foreign  interference;  no  trust  in  the  power 
of  cotton,  or  in  the  failure  of  money.  I  look  to  God  for  His 
help,  and  in  due  time  it  will  come.  Meanwhile  we  must  be 
patient  and  enduring — patient  under  his  chastisements,  and 
enduring  while  he  is  making  things  work  together  for  good 
to  us.  As  I  have  said  to  you,  again  and  again,  this  war  is 
never  to  be  ended  by  any  victories  of  ours ;  God  will  give  us 
just  enough  of  them  to  enable  us  to  keep  our  enemy  at  bay ; 
it  will  be  ended  by  his  turning  their  arms  inward  upon  them- 
selves. In  the  punishment  of  Europe  for  its  horrid  blas- 
phemy, infidelity,  and  vice  of  the  last  century,  that  punishment 
took  the  same  form  of  a  dispensation  of  death.  The  French 
Revolutionists  slaughtered  their  fellow  citizens  at  home  until 
they  were  glutted  with  blood,  and  man  could  endure  no  more ; 
then  the  carnage  was  carried  on  still  upon  themselves,  but 


12  A  SERMON. 

likewise  upon  their  neighbors,  who  had  abetted  their  sins, 
through  the  wars  of  Napoleon.  Upon  our  continent  the  pun- 
ishment has  been  reversed ;  the  people  of  the  Northern  States 
had  been  trained  upon  such  principles  of  law  and  order,  that 
they,  were  not  prepared  at  once,  to  cut  each  other's  throats ; 
they  must  first  be  accustomed  to  violence  through  years 
of  bloody  war,  and  grievances  must  be  created  great  enough 
to  excite  their  angry  passions.  The  dispensation  of  death 
upon  this  continent,  has  taken,  therefore,  a  different  course ; 
first  outward  upon  us,  and  then  inward  upon  themselves. 
When  God  is  satisfied  with  our  chastisement,  and  we,  in 
humble  penitence  and  submission  have  said,  "  Give  us  help 
from  trouble ;  for  vain  is  the  help  of  man,"  then  will  He 
permit  our  sufferings  to  cease  and  theirs  to  begin.  They  need 
not  boast  that  they  do  not  feel  the  war ;  they  need  not  exult 
in  their  wealth  and  luxury  ;  they  are  only  fattening  in  a  large 
place  as  a  lamb  for  the  slaughter.     Their  feet  shall  slide  in 

^  due  time.  The  election  of  Lincoln  is  a  necessity  for  our  deliv- 
erance ;  any  other  result  should  be  disastrous  to  us.  We  need 
his  folly  and  his  fanaticism  for  another  term;  his  mad  pursuit 
of  his  peculiar  ideas.  It  is  he  that  is  ordained  to  lead  his 
people  to  destruction;  to  force  them  into  conflict  through  the 
arbitrariness  of  his  decrees.  His  re-election  will  give  him 
fresh  courage  and  additional  madness.  He  will  drive  all 
sound  and  rational  men  from  his  side  ;  he  will  gather  around 
him  the  radical  and  the  fanatic ;  he  will  pursue  the  war  with 
redoubled  fury,  until  at  last  satiated  with  misrule,  the  sober 
thinking  men  of  the  North  will  perceive,  that  submission  to 
him  is  utter  and  perpetual  ruin.  Then  will  come  the  conflict 
which  shall  deliver  us,  when  we  shall  be  oblige'd  to  confess, 
(for  it  may  not  come  until  we  are  in  our  last  extremity); 
"It  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes." 
All  things  are  working  together  for  our  good.     The  fall  of 

,  Atlanta,  the  victories  at  Mobile,  our  reverses  of  whatever 
kind,  are  so  many  links  in  the  re-election  of  Lincoln,  and 
therefore,  so  many  links  in  the  chain  of  our  deliverance. 
Every  thing  which  gives  them  confidence,  is  so  much  in  our 
favor,  because  it  goads  them  on  in  their  career  of  madness. 
What  we  have  most  to  fear  in  our  exhausted  and  depressed  con- 


A   SERMON.  13 

dition,  is  an  administration  which  would  come  with  kindness 
on  its  lips>  and  reconstruction  with  our  ancient  privileges  in  its 
hand.  I  fear  our  people  would  not  have  virtue  to  resist  it,  and 
we  should  be  linked  once  more  to  that  "  body  of  death."  What 
we  require  is  such  fury  as  Grant's,  such  cruelty  as  Butler's, 
such  fanaticism  as  Sherman's.  It  is  men  like  these  who 
revive  our  courage,  and  reanimate  our  efforts.  We  see  that 
we  have  nothing  to  look  for  but  degradation  and  outlawry ; 
that  we  must  fight,  or  else  give  up  every  thing  that  an  honor- 
able man  holds  dear — not  only  our  property,  but  our  caste — 
not  only  our  sovereignty,  but  our  personal  freedom.  When 
we  realize  fully  what  our  future  condition  is  to  be,  and  Lincoln's 
re-election  will  make  us  realize  it,  then  shall  we  be  fairly 
aroused,  and  must  make  the  choice  between  a  perpetual  resist- 
ance, if  necessary,  and  a  condition  of  serfdom,  in  which  we 
and  our  children  shall  be  made  "  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water,"  to  the  paupers  of  Europe,  the  negroes  of  Africa, 
and  last  and  lowest  of  all,  to  the  Black  Eepublicans  of  the 
North.  If  any  of  you  are  ready  for  that,  I  am  not,  and  there- 
fore I  cry  unto  God  to  help  me  in  trouble,  "for  He  it  is 
who  is  to  tread  down  our  enemies." 


m 


